This poem by John Donne uses impossible imagery to argue that finding a truly faithful woman is impossible. It lists fantastical tasks like catching a falling star, getting a mandrake root to bear a child, splitting the devil's foot, and hearing mermaids sing. These things cannot be done, implying that a faithful woman also cannot be found no matter how far one searches. Even if such a woman was found, the poem says she would soon be false to two or three men before the speaker could meet her.

1. Imagery in Donne’s
“Go, and Catch a Falling Star”

2. Go, and Catch a Falling Star
Go, and catch a falling star,
Get with child a mandrake root,
Tell me, where all past years are,
Or who cleft the Devil's foot,
Teach me to hear Mermaids singing,
Or to keep off envy's stinging,
And find
What wind
Serves to advance an honest mind.
If thou best borne to strange sights,
Things invisible to see,
Ride ten thousand days and nights,
Till age snow white hairs on thee,
Thou, when thou return'st, wilt tell me
All strange wonders that befell thee,
And swear
No where
Lives a woman true, and fair.
If thou find’st one, let me know,
Such a Pilgrimage were sweet;
Yet do not, I would not go,
Though at next door we might meet,
Though she were true, when you met her,
And last, till you write your letter,
Yet she
Will be
False, ere I come, to two, or three.

3. Imagery
The imagery of ‘pictures in words’ the pictorial
quality of a literary work achieved through the
collection of images.

4. ‘falling star’- It is impossible to fine a true and
faithful women as we cannot catch a falling star.

5. ‘mandrake root’- another impossible task can be to search out
a mandrake plant bearing a child

6. ‘Devil’s foot’- Devil’s foot is believed to be liked as the foot
of ox or the sheep. As the devil’s foot can never be split,
there is no possibility to find out a fear woman.

7. Mermaids’ singing- A mermaid is like a half fish
and half woman. Mermaid used to sing very
enchanted song. But as no one has ever seen them
in reality, their music also cannot be heard.